Some days I wake up and have no idea what day it is. I have to think about it for a few seconds.

Yesterday--Sunday--I woke up to DH's alarm going off and began getting everyone up and ready as though it were Monday. I was picking out what shoes DS should wear that day before my brain said "Wait a minute, are we really sure it's Monday?" DH's alarm doesn't normally go off on Sundays, so I guess the alarm gave my brain the Monday cue.

Occasionally I will wake up in the night and think it's morning and time to get up. Again, I feel uncomfortably disoriented when this happens.

I've had this problem. I think it is because I wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle. I use http://sleepyti.me/ to help fix it.

You can put in the time you want to wake up and it figures out the best times for you to fall asleep. Our you can put in the current time and it will figure the best time for you to wake up (assuming you go to sleep with 15 minutes of the time you put in.

I once woke up, got dressed, drove to a sub job, no one was there so I waited in the car - till a cop wanted to know what I was doing in the parking lot of a rural school at 3:30 am. Thankfully he believed me and let me go home.

This house was built in 1905...there is still a coal furnace in the basement with a chute full of coal in front of it. Honestly, I doubt any of the windows have been replaced in the last 30 years by the looks of them. Some of the doors still have skeleton keys and the only rooms with overhead lights are the bathroom, kitchen, and pantry/back porch/back door area. I will have to check the furnace, though, as I don't think there were dogs in the house before we were here thus it may have not been changed in a good while. Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure my dogs bring in most of it despite the fact that humans usually account for most of dust. I doubt the scientist had 2 long haired Akitas in the house when they tested the dust for human skin cells.

My boss had to remodel her house because she was cleaning up a small dog sized clump of hair from their five dogs every day. Her glossy white tile had to go, as the hair would attract to it. She now has lovely wood-colored tile, that only requires sweeping once a day.

I bought a pet hair handheld vacuum to use, especially around our two birds. Little downy feathers get in everything.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

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"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

I'm not entirely sure about most of that, but I know my EC has different rates for 500 kWh and 1000 kWh. When I hit 1000 kWh, they charge a higher rate. Your current bill should say how much power you have used in that month. If you use just over 1000 kWh, consider a provider who has the best rate for that. If you are moving to a much larger/smaller house or expecting lower heating bills, look for rates that are closer to what you expect in the new place.

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You are only young once. After that you have to think up some other excuse.

How on earth do you read and understand the various electric company offerings?

We are moving to Houston, where you can choose between different electric companies. I am so overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out! We currently live in an area where there is only 1 option for electricity, so I have never even needed to think about these things.

For example, they give different rates for 500 kWh, 1000 kWh, and 2000 kWh. Does that mean that your rate will vary and be billed by the amount of electricity you use? Is there some sort of average that I might expect to use? What is renewable content, and should we look for a provider that has a higher percentage of it? What is a "TDSP pass-through charge"? Should you go with the provider with the lowest prices, or are there other factors to consider?

I'm not entirely sure about most of that, but I know my EC has different rates for 500 kWh and 1000 kWh. When I hit 1000 kWh, they charge a higher rate. Your current bill should say how much power you have used in that month. If you use just over 1000 kWh, consider a provider who has the best rate for that. If you are moving to a much larger/smaller house or expecting lower heating bills, look for rates that are closer to what you expect in the new place.

Also remember that your heating bills may very well be lower.....but your summer cooling bills could be a LOT higher (I live just southwest of Houston).

I've had chicken marsala at Olive Garden and I love it. It's so yummy! I didn't realize that it's cooked in a specific wine, Marsala, until I started seeing recipes online for it. And that led me to several stupid questions.

So, stupid question #1: does the alcohol cook out of the wine?#2: is there a substitution, or is the flavor mostly dependent on the wine?#3: I don't drink, so how many 1C servings would be in a typical bottle?#4: I think that once you open the bottle, you then have a limited window of time in which to consume the wine, correct? That being said, if I made a bunch of the sauce, would it freeze well?

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In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz

No, not all the alcohol cooks out of the wine.The flavor is heavily dependent on the wine.I usually get three to four recipes out of one bottle.Marsala is fortified, and lasts just fine as long as the lid or cork is secured between uses.

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ďAll that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."-J.R.R Tolkien

chicken marsala .... if I made a bunch of the sauce, would it freeze well?

The freezing point of alcohol is -173F (-114C). The average home freezer is just a little cooler than 32F (0C). If the sauce contains alcohol the water in it will freeze but the alcohol will remain liquid. So you'll get a slush, not a block of ice.

I'm still trying to figure out Twitter. #Whatdoesitmeanwhenpeopledothis ?

It is a hashtag, and for the old-school among us, it is kind of like a file marker. If you 'tag' something, twitter will file it with all the other tweets under that tag. If you want to see all the tweets filed with yours, type your hashtag into the search function. This also gives extra meaning to the tweet. If you tweet someone and say "I like your shirt" they will take it as a fashion compliment. Hashtag it with #nicegazongas, and it has a totally different meaning.

People make games of this. They also hashtag important events. So if you wanted to see Olympic or superbowl tweets, you could search for the hashtags. If the event is going on right now, you can follow along with that hashtag and see every tweet even if you don't follow the people making them.

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You are only young once. After that you have to think up some other excuse.

My district tech department has a hashtag so we can see each other's tweets about things we have done in the classroom. Some schools have hashtagas and a tv set to display things happening at the school.